Holy ground

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. – Exodus 3.1-5

There have been several encounters between God and various men up to this point. They have all been kind of mysterious and passing. But Moses’ encounter is different. Here Moses, and us, really get to meet God and get to know more about Him.

The first thing that Moses learns, even before he really gets to meet God, is a key characteristic.

Moses was walking along when we saw a burning bush. That was nothing unusual in the desert. But what was unusual was the fact that it was on fire without burning up. When he stopped he heard the voice of the Lord call out his name. When he replied ‘here I am’ the voice said ‘don’t come any closer. Take off your shoes. This is holy ground.’

So the very first thing that Moses learns about God is that he dwells in holiness. This holiness of God is a theme which will run from here to the very end of scripture. God is holy and His holiness always separates Him from man. God’s holiness means that man cannot approach Him on his own. God would have to approach man.

And that is what God is doing here. God is the one opening the communication with man and down that wall of separation. God, in His pure and absolute holiness, was approaching man who was most certainly not holy.

We are blessed that though the blood of Christ we have access to a holy God. Because of that we can boldly and with confidence approach our holy God.

But we must never take it for granted. Let us always remember ‘the ground you are on is holy ground’ when we approach our Father God.